The Ascension of the Lord (B) 2021

Introduction

Art has a unique ability to communicate truth. Consider, for example, the usual depictions of the Ascension. Garofalo and Rembrandt’s depicitions are two you have probably seen before. They show the apostles gathered on a grassy slope in the middle of the day. Their gaze is fixed upwards as they watch Jesus suspended, mid-air. Above Jesus, all of heaven lies in plain view, with the God the Father waiting expectantly. In these Renaissance paintings of the Ascension, God and humanity, heaven and earth, seem close enough to touch. Which is precisely the meaning of the Ascension.

The Dogma of the Ascension

The Ascension of Jesus to Heaven is a dogma of the Catholic faith. In the sixth article of the Creed, we profess that Jesus “ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” The veracity of the Ascension is confirmed by the eye-witness testimony of the apostles. St Mark relates: “And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven: there at the right hand of God he took his place.” St Luke, too, recounts: “As he spoke he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight.” In his Ascension, Jesus completes the mission given to Him by the Father, namely, the reunion of God and humanity. In the ascension, humanity is literally introduced into the eternal presence of God. Even so, the Ascension does not mean that Jesus ceases to be with us on earth. Indeed, the Ascension makes it possible for Jesus to be present to men and women in every age, not only a few who lived two-thousand years ago. Jesus is as close to us now as he was to the apostles.

The Church: The Body of Christ

As one body ascends to heaven, another is formed. Jesus fashions for himself a new body that will be the means by which he continues to be present on earth. Saint Paul insists again and again that Jesus’ body is the Catholic Church. To the Colossians, he writes: “He is the head of the body, the Church… ” To the Ephesians: “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body.” To the Romans: “For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ.” Jesus forms his new body in two steps: first, by the ascension, Jesus has moulded the apostles into one entity, one body if you like; second, at Pentecost, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into this body from heaven, to give it life. The way Jesus forms his new body resembles the way the Father formed the bodies of the first man and woman: “The Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” The Church is the new bodily presence of the Son of God, so much so that St Augustine says the Church is Christ: “Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but Christ himself… We have become Christ. For if he is the head, we are the members; he and we togehter are the whole man… The full Christ then is the head and the members.” St Thomas Aquinas is more succinct: “Head and members form as it were one and the same person.”

The Church exercises Christ’s mission

The Church is Christ’s new body. It is the instrument by which he continues to carry out his mission in the world. Thus, as he is about to ascend, Jesus hands over to the nascent Church his own mission: “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned.” St Mark immediately confirms that Jesus continued to work through the apostles: “They, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it.”

Jesus bestows his mission upon the Church in different and complimentary ways.

First, Jesus gives to the apostles and their successors the ‘universal apostolic mandate’, that is, the command to preach the Gospel for the salvation of souls. The apostolic mandate confers upon the bishops the authority to speak and act in Christ’s own person. This authority includes the authority to teach the authentic truth of Christ, the authority to confer sanctifying grace through the Sacraments, and the authority to govern the Church on earth. The apostolic mandate confers upon the bishops a privelidged share in Christ’s mission for the sake of the salvation of souls.

Nevertheless, Jesus also confers a share in his mission upon all the baptised. The Second Vatican Council explains: “In the organism of a living body no member plays a purely passive part, sharing in the life of the body it shares at the same time in its activity. The same is true for the body of Christ, the Church… On all Christians, accordingly, rests the noble obligation of working to bring all men throughout the whole world to hear and accept the divine message of salvation.” The role of the laity in the Church is often confused today in a way that hinders the salvation of souls. The governance of the Church, the administration of the sacraments, and the teaching of the faith, especially in the context of the Sacred Liturgy, are the responsibility of the bishops with the priests and deacons. The responsibility of the laity is to help order the world towards God, sanctify the world through lives of prayer, and to make the Gospel known through the witness of the Christian life. Each set of responsibilities compliments the other.

Conclusion

Jesus’ ascension is the goal towards which his whole earthly life was ordered: the union of God and humanity. Nevertheless, this mission is not static; it must be carried out in every age so that people of all times and places can come to know God. To this end, Christ formed the Church as his enduring bodily presence and bestowed upon her his own mission so that where he the head has gone in glory, we the body may follow.